The Warmth of a Brother
by DumbHumanLikeYou
Summary: Minor spoilers for 2.12, the released WIGYA scene. After a not-so-pleasant experience with the Warblers, Kurt spends the evening in Lima, reconnecting with old friends and discovering that Finn didn't have the best Valentine's Day, either. Furt bonding.


Valentine's Day made Kurt Hummel feel cold.

Literally.

The afterschool Warbler field trip to the Gap had soundly destroyed all of his warm and fuzzy hopes for a relationship with Blaine. He couldn't even look at his crush – _former crush, I'm through pining for him_, Kurt thought bitterly – after the song ended, and was in his Navigator heading north within two minutes of the show choir's return to the Dalton campus.

He felt bitter and numb and just plain _cold_, due to the broken heating in his car. Kurt had told his father he would fix it himself at the garage, but when Blaine had come calling, asking for another favor, the heat had been forgotten. Now, its presence was more noticeable than ever.

Although all he wanted to do this evening was curl up under the covers of his bed, a call to Carole telling her he'd be spending the night at home quickly turned into Kurt sitting in the McKinley High School parking lot, waiting for basketball tryouts to end. Carole hadn't allowed her son to touch the wheel of a car since his mailman incident, and as a result Kurt constantly became Finn's chauffer.

Kurt was getting colder as he waited for his stepbrother to get out of practice. In addition to the numbness in his fingers and toes, he kept replaying Blaine singing to _Sebastian_ (even in Kurt's head the employee's name was emphasized with loathing). After twenty minutes, Kurt jumped out of the driver's seat and stormed off towards the school. Whether he was escaping from the cold or his own thoughts, he didn't know.

The gymnasium was devoid of all athletes, so Kurt made his way down the hallway, stopping when he reached the boys' locker room. Remembering full well the outcome of the last time he burst trough those doors, he resorted to knocking.

"Please don't be Karofsky, please don't be Karofsky, please don't be Karofsky," he muttered as he waited for someone to get the door. "Don't be Azimio, either. Or anyone who wants to beat me up."

His prayers were answered as the door opened to reveal Mike Chang, who grinned upon seeing his former classmate.

"Hey, Kurt! What's up?"

Kurt could hear the chatter inside the locker room fade away as his name echoed throughout the space. He shook off the nerves as best as he could.

"Is Finn done yet?" he asked.

Mike turned away from the door, shouting, "Finn, are you done yet?"

"Yeah, just another minute or two," he replied, sounding absolutely exhausted. "Hold on… Which one of you jerks knapsacked me?"

Kurt laughed along with his former classmates. "Need help, Finn?" he called, hearing the contents of Finn's backpack spill out across the floor.

"Yeah, sure." Kurt heard Finn whispering to his teammates, and as he leaned towards Mike to hear better, he overheard the basketball players giving Finn an all-clear in terms of people undressing. "Come on in, Kurt."

Slowly, Kurt made his way past Mike to enter the locker room. His gaze was fixed on the spot where Karofsky had kissed him, causing him to almost bump into one of the benches. In an attempt to cover his stumble, Kurt bent down and began collecting the assorted items of Finn's backpack.

"Hold up," Finn said, halfway through turning his backpack the right side out. "Is there a reason Mom sent you to pick me up instead of her? No one's dying or anything, are they?"

"No, no, nothing like that. I just felt like coming home. I spent all weekend at school working on that stupid song, and I missed you guys."

Finn smiled as he attempted to organize the numerous pages of Coach Beiste's basketball handbook. "How did that number end up doing?"

Kurt was planning on putting on a fake smile and saying the harmonies sounded great, being careful not to mention Blaine or the guy he was singing to. He wanted to act like everything was okay, hold the emotions in until he could get on the phone and have a bitchfest with Mercedes. However, his mind was apparently still frozen, and Kurt ended up leaning back against the lockers, rolling his eyes, and letting out a sigh that sounded more like a groan.

Mike winced. "That bad? Was it a song you guys were planning on doing for Regionals?"

"No," Kurt sighed. "It was a favor for Blaine."

Artie let out a wolf-whistle, to which Kurt responded by throwing Finn's box of crayons at him. The crayons broke free of their cardboard confines and scattered around the floor. Kurt angrily hoisted himself to his feet to gather them up.

"I'm guessing there was no love in the air, then," Artie muttered, wheeling himself backwards so Kurt could pick up the crayons that had rolled underneath him.

"Oh, there was plenty of love, just not in the way I anticipated it." Kurt sighed. "I'm sorry, Artie. I didn't mean to… well, assault you with crayons."

"You obviously didn't hear about my atomic slushie last week. Crayons are fine, man." Artie wheeled himself back towards his locker. "So, like, what happened?"

Kurt smiled for the first time since leaving Westerville; Artie was always one of his friends genuinely concerned with his issues. While Finn, Mike and Sam occasionally asked about how things were going at Dalton, it seemed more of a formality than anything else. Artie was the only one of the New Directions guys that Kurt could have an actual conversation with.

"I just got my hopes up. It _is _Valentine's Day, after all." Kurt suddenly found himself ranting about all of Blaine's flirting over the past few months, and was grateful that most of the McKinley jocks had left the locker room. All the New Directions guys had stayed to hear his story (even if most of them looked uncomfortable upon hearing about a boy pining for another boy), and there were a few hockey players still packing up their gear. Kurt hadn't seen Dave Karofsky leave, and was sure he was somewhere in the room, but his mouth was on autopilot and didn't seem to care.

"I mean, this isn't the first time he's come to me asking for help on a romantic number! He did it right before Christmas, too, and both times he's been insanely flirtatious. So when Jeff said Blaine was getting ready to profess his love… was it so much for me to assume Blaine liked me? But _no_, he's in love with _Sebastian_ –"

"That's such a douchey prep school name," Puck snorted. "Another Gurgler, huh?"

"No. It's worse."

Finn raised his eyebrow in confusion. "What's worse than prep school?"

Kurt hadn't meant to explode. He really hadn't.

"HE WORKS AT THE GAP! _THE GAP_, FINN!" he yelled, and Finn's expression was not unlike the time Burt had yelled at him in their basement. "I've been trying to get Blaine to like me for _months_, and he goes all 'flash mob' trying to impress some guy _who works at the Gap_."

"Well, is he at least good-looking?" Artie asked.

"No! He looks like he hasn't cut his hair in years, he has terrible fashion sense, and he didn't even look that interested in Blaine, so obviously he's a little mentally challenged. Or straight," he added as an afterthought.

Kurt took a deep breath and half sat, half collapsed on the bench. "I don't know why I'm so worked up about this. I've been rejected before –" Finn and Sam exchanged uncomfortable looks "- but this time I actually had a chance."

To his surprise, it was Puck who sat next to him. "Dude, I get it. Rejection sucks."

"Who'd you get rejected by? Santana or Quinn?"

"Lauren."

Kurt couldn't help the laugh that escaped his mouth. "Good for her. She should make a guy work for it."

"Hey, at least we weren't rejected multiple times like Lover-boy over there."

Kurt looked up towards Finn, smiling. "Yeah, how did that kissing booth thing go?"

"It… was alright. I guess." Finn looked as though he'd rather be talking about anything else. Kurt turned to Puck for the real answer.

"How much did he make?"

"Three bucks."

"Finn, _I_ could make more money than that kissing girls. And I'm_ gay_."

"Well, that's because all of the Cheerios love you and –" Finn cut himself abruptly, embarrassed that he just admitted to a room of his peers that he had less game with the ladies than his gay stepbrother. Everyone else in the locker room burst out laughing.

"I didn't mean it like that! I've kissed way more girls than Kurt! At least, I think I have, he never told me what happened at those Cheerios sleepovers –"

Kurt had tears in his eyes for the second time today, but at least this time they were tears of joy. Fanning himself with his hand to calm himself down, he tried to talk to Finn, but had to take a moment to breathe.

"Look at us, Finn," he said once he had calmed down somewhat. "We're so loveless it's pathetic. Hilariously pathetic, even."

"I know. God, Mom's going to be so pissed when we tell her she's never going to have grandchildren."

"Speaking of which, we should probably head home." Kurt finished packing Finn's backpack and threw it over his shoulder. "I have plans to burn every article of Gap clothing I possess."

"Most of us guys are having a _Call of Duty_ tournament later tonight," Artie said. "Once we all finish our dates, I mean."

"Ah, a party to brag about Valentine's Day conquests. I'll pass."

"Nah, me either, dude," Finn said. "I don't want to know who gets with Rachel…or Quinn," he added once Sam had left the room and was safely out of earshot. He turned to Kurt.

"Guess it's family night tonight. You staying, or driving back to school after dinner?"

"Oh, I'm most definitely staying. I want the resentment to die down before I see Blaine again. Besides, Dan snores. Brother bonding night?"

"What do you guys do?" Puck asked, smirking. "Paint each other's toes and watch Tyra?"

A handful of the jocks (mostly the ones who used to taunt Kurt for his sexuality) laughed. Kurt rolled his eyes before remembering something. He turned to Finn with a sly smile.

"Finn, I had a visit from Luke this weekend, so…" He left the rest of the statement open, looking for his stepbrother to fill in the blanks on his own.

Finn furrowed his brow, clearly having trouble with filling in the blanks. "Luke… Luke…" He stood in silence for a moment, before jumping two inches in the air with excitement.

"You have alcohol?"

A surprised murmur filled the room. Kurt smirked, enjoying the attention.

"Family Guy and rum and Diet Coke sounds much more enjoyable than painting each other's toenails, don't you think, Finn?"

While the question was verbally addressed to his brother, Kurt directed it more towards Puck, daring him to come up with an insulting comeback. The jock simply nodded his head slowly, looking somewhat impressed.

"Hudson wasn't kidding when he said the Warblers act and party like rock stars. Respect, man."

"Yeah, Puck, don't mess with us," Finn said. "'Furt' is awesome, and you know it."

Kurt let out an exasperated sigh. "How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling us 'Furt'? It sounds kind of weird, and it's embarrassing."

"Well… how about Hud-mel?"

"… I guess I can live with that. Ready to go?"

Finn grabbed his sports bag, grinning. "Yeah, I'm ready to get my drink on."

As they made their way down the hallway, Finn turned towards Kurt.

"Have I told you that you're pretty much the greatest big brother ever?"

The statement warmed Kurt's heart, to the point where he barely noticed the February chill.


End file.
